NCT07727304Enrolling by invitation
Implementation of Acute Heart Failure Checklist
An Implementation Study to Improve Care of Patients With Acute Heart Failure in the Emergency Department
Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Last updated 16 Oct 2026
Brief summary (registry, in English)
Patients with acute heart failure (AHF) commonly present to the emergency department (ED) with difficulty breathing and often have poor outcomes or death. Care of AHF is very complex and, unfortunately, there are no specific guidelines for how physicians should manage AHF in the ED. The investigators recently created the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) AHF Best Practices Checklist, a concise document that provides specific guidance for ED care. Our ultimate goal is to conduct a 12-site cluster study to introduce the CAEP AHF Checklist in multiple EDs. Before the investigators can do so, it is essential to demonstrate feasibility in a smaller-scale study. Our objective for this application is to conduct an internal pilot study to demonstrate feasibility of measuring implementation outcomes and refine the protocol if necessary. The investigators will develop strategies to encourage successful adoption of the Checklist by physicians in the ED and allocate 4 large Ontario EDs to implement the Checklist for 1,700 adult AHF patients. This study will be very important for patients and the healthcare system. If the investigators show that the CAEP AHF Checklist improves patient management and outcomes, this would lead to widespread uptake of the Checklist by all EDs in Canada.
- Status (registry)
- Enrolling by invitation
- Study type
- Interventional
- Enrollment
- 5040 (estimated)
- First submitted
- 3 Jul 2026
- Start date
- Aug 2026
- Primary completion date
- Dec 2029
- Lead sponsor
- Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
- Diseases
- Heart failure
- NCT number
- NCT07727304
What you commit to
- Study type: Interventional
- Planned participants: 5040
- From Aug 2026 to the primary completion date, Dec 2029
- 1 site in 1 country
- Visits and tests: ask the trial team, the registry does not list them
Built from the registry fields of ClinicalTrials.gov. It describes the study, not your situation.
Who cannot take part
Copied verbatim from ClinicalTrials.gov and grouped by topic. Only the trial team decides who can take part.
Other illness
- who have acute myocardial infarction (either ST elevation or non-ST elevation) diagnosed in the ED, because the primary problem for these patients is not heart failure and they require specialized treatment beyond the scope of the Checklist; or
Other
- who do not fit the definition of AHF;
- if the primary reason for the ED visit was not AHF (e.g. pneumonia, pulmonary embolism);
- who are considered terminal, with death expected within 60 days.
Who the study is looking for
- All resident and staff physicians managing patients with AHF in the ED are the primary study participants and this includes emergency, medicine, cardiology, and hospitalists.
- The patients that will be included are consecutive adults age \>18 years and who present to the ED with recent onset of or recent increase in shortness of breath due to AHF, as determined by health records review.
- Eligibility of patients will be reviewed by the blinded study Steering Committee.
- Included will be both patients subsequently admitted to hospital and those discharged from the ED, as both will be impacted by the recommendations of the CAEP AHF Checklist.
Age in the registry: 18 years to - · Sex: All · Does not accept healthy volunteers
Sites (1)
Sites in registry order. Pick your city on the disease page to sort them by distance.
| Site | City | Country | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Coordinator of this site? Confirm its status | Ottawa | Canada | Unknown status |
This page is information, not medical advice. Discuss any trial with your doctor.